Tension around Imia islets

There was tension in the waters around the Imia islets on Wednesday morning, as Turkish media claims.

According to the Turkish newspaper Milliyet, a coast guard boat from the Greek port of Kalymnos and six Greek fishing boats approached Imia and "wanted to enter Turkish waters" as it mentions. The newspaper even supports that a Turkish cutter patrolling in the area blocked Greek vessels.

Then, according to the Turkish newspaper, the coast guard vessel and the fishing boats, went to an area where eight Turkish vessels were fishing in "international waters". According to Milliyet, Greek ships approached the Turkish boats at a distance of 100 meters and were driven away again. The tension lasted about 6 hours, according to the report.

No mention of the incident was made by Greek authorities. It should be noted that tension in the area almost caused war in 1996, during an incident that cost the lives of three naval helicopter crewmembers under still unexplained cicumstances.